Defender Picks

New Orleans has been a welcoming mother to musical talents for many decades. Perhaps it is something in the sweet air or the rains that come down that encourage seeds of poetry to sprout. Recently, I came across a local artist who caught my attention as he was telling a friend about the future he sees ahead for himself. Curious, I asked him to tell me about himself. “It's Vizhin coming straight outta New Orleans, LA — but all my friends just call me Viz.”

Cities across the country are in the throes of an affordable housing crisis. While metropolitan cities like Houston, Brooklyn, and San Francisco all face growing rental problems that, in many ways, are more severe than the state of housing in the Crescent City, the crisis here threatens the vital identity of the New Orleans. As the city approaches the threshold where urban development and gentrification threaten to displace residents with deep generational ties, many New Orleanians forced out will take their unique cultural and legacy with them.

Children returning to school in post-Katrina New Orleans brought with them a host of adverse experiences and emotional responses resulting from the damage, displacement, and despair. But for a child, a traumatic experience can result from any tragic incident and need not be one on the order of magnitude associated with a natural disaster. Trauma can result from any number of challenging, life-altering moments – from dealing with a house fire to domestic abuse -- and each student handles those events as best possible, often without the right tools, or coping skills, in place.

For Kenneth Bibbins, Founder and CEO of PrepWorld, LLC, helping people address and manage these kinds of challenges is what he does for a living, and when it comes to children, our most vulnerable population, it is critical that their needs be addressed in a timely manner.

Festivities for New Orleans Pride are underway. Whether a parader, a partier, a costume queen, or trivia maven, there is something for everyone this weekend. Read on for NoDef's picks for the can't-miss events around town, and be sure to check out New Orleans Pride's official list of all events.

The Drifter Hotel is not an easy place to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Tucked away on a confusing portion of Tulane Avenue not far from the Courthouse, it’s very close to the Brown Derby gas station that used to be stomping grounds for patrons of New Orleans' seedy underbelly. The once desolate area is slowly morphing into an up-and-coming corridor. In the last six months, several of the dilapidated, flea-ridden, pimp-frequented hotels that locals have long been accustomed to driving quickly by on Tulane have been purchased by investors who plan to bring back a 70’s feel, under the guise of trendy boutique hotels that hope to lure the sort of young, hip, bohemian transplants who previously would have only found themselves on the Avenue to make a court date, if then.

Each week, historian Sean Michael Chick will highlight some of the country's unsung heroes during the Civil War era who could serve as positive replacements following the takedown of New Orleans' Confederate monuments. Keep up to date here.

In the midst of the public fight over the removal of the Confederate monuments in New Orleans, relatively little was asked about what would replace Jefferson Davis, P. G. T. Beauregard, and Robert E. Lee. On May 19th, just before Lee came down, Mayor Mitch Landrieu answered that question. The answer was underwhelming.

Black Laurel is a New Orleans-based indie garage rock band comprised of Gregg Yde (lead vocals/guitar), Rade Pejic (bass), and Nate Ruger (drums). The members, who hail from the metropolitan, northern reaches of the country such as Chicago and Philadelphia, have fine-tuned their trio over the years into a sophisticated sound that the lead vocalist refers to as “2-car garage rock.”

New Orleans’ premier chamber music festival came to a close this Saturday (6.3) with concert at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center. At Birdfoot's gala finale show, listeners were treated to performances by an elite cast of musicians. Now in its sixth season, Birdfoot brings to New Orleans a series of world-renowned classical performances to informal and intimate settings not normally associated with classical music.

Each week, J.A. Lloyd will take readers through the secret and sometimes unexamined legends, myths, and folklore of New Orleans past. This week, learn about the haunted horrors of the Sultan Palace in the French Quarter.

I spent the better portion of my first thirteen years walking the streets near 1620 Dumaine Street, not far from North Claiborne Avenue. My family’s funeral home was located smack-dab in the middle of the block, next door to Mr. Daryl’s Barbershop, just up from Congress Hats, right across from the infamous Tucky’s Dome, where a cast of characters – and I mean, characters! – convened nightly. Down the street, toward Joseph A. Craig School, was Mr. Claude’s Grocery, where we’d get sweets and snacks and my grandfather’s “lunch-tongue and liver-cheese” sandwiches. It was a very user-friendly neighborhood.